S is for Soup

I love soup.

It's giving like giving your body a hug from the inside out.  

It's seasonal cooking at its best and is great at turning the odd parsnip, half a swede and few potatoes into a feast. 

I am even feeling happier just writing these first few sentences.

It is the perfect accompaniment to a blustery autumn day, and autumn has definitely started to make it's presence known. The days may still be warm but the mornings are chilly and the evenings are cold enough that it warranted a few minutes conversation with our cat on the back door step last night about whether he really wanted to stay outside, or come back in and snuggle up on the foot of our bed.

But I digress.

Soup is delicious, nutritious, and comes in so many flavours and guises.

Clear broth or thick and creamy. Chunky vegetable or smooth. With or without croutons (silly question that)

And it can be a super quick meal if you have some in a can...so it gets bonus points for that.

In fact, one of my most favourite soups is the legendary "Cream of Tomato" by Heinz, but since shopping at Lidl we have tried their version of it and guess what? You can barely tell the difference; pretty much the same taste and definitely the same orange/red colour. 

Now this particular flavour of canned soup has been a favourite since I was very very small and has stayed with me to this day. However when I was a teenager one of my friends revolutionised this soup for me and it changed me for life...although I don't think I ever told her this...I would like to share this story with you. 

As the story goes we were in our mid teens, and I cant remember if it was a weekend or holiday or if we were on study leave but we were at said friends house and got a bit peckish as teenagers do so set about making lunch. A can of soup was opened and put on the stove, bowls were taken out of the cupboard but then my friend opened the fridge and pulled out some cheese.   Needless to say I was baffled as I watched said friend cut up the cheese into tiny chunks and put them at the bottom of each bowl and then pour the hot soup (tomato...obviously) over the cheese.

I was astounded...as I ate my soup I would get the occasional mouthful of molten cheese and it was amazing and as long as I don't have a cheese sandwich to dip in my tomato soup (more on that in a moment) I always put cheese in my tomato soup now. So Hannah, if you are reading (*waves*) thank you very much for introducing cheese in tomato soup for me 

But what about soup not from a can? 

Thankfully my tastes and ability in the kitchen have come a long way since I was a teenager. I cannot resist a properly topped off French onion soup and a chicken noodle soup is the best medicine when you have the flu.

I am lucky that my boys are not fussy eaters and home made vegetable soup is a big hit in my house with the Two Monkeys as long as there is bread or a cheese sandwich to dip in it.  I often have those half baked baguettes in the cupboard or freezer and after 10 minutes in the oven they are ready to go and having smothered them in butter they are a great side to most soups. 

Just remember that anything goes when it comes to soup...made with fresh ingredients or left overs, it really doesn't matter.

I have had a few recent hits in the kitchen with some of my soups so wanted to share them with you - one is a time saver and the other a left over user upper.

So the time saver soup was made on a Sunday, as usual the boys were up at 6am (ish) and we go to church as a family at about 10.30am.  This does mean that I have a lot of time to get things done before we go but am often rushed to get lunch for my very hungry boys on our return. This particular sunday I knew I had a heap of root vegetables that needed using and a spare half hour in which to make something before we left the house. I got out my trusty cast iron pan (which also happens to be our most enduring wedding present) and fried up a large sliced onion, added in very roughly chopped carrots, white potatoes, sweet potatoes and two squashed garlic cloves. I maybe sautéed them for about two minutes before covering with freshly boiled water so everything was just covered. Add in a stock cube and put the lid on. I then put the whole thing in the oven at 120 and set the oven to turn off after 90 minutes. We returned home from church and the kitchen smelt lovely and all that was left for me to do was use our stick blender to purree the contents of the pan along with some fresh herbs from the garden and fry up some bacon to go on top. Now this last bit makes any soup a winner with my dear husband  as a meal isn't a meal unless it has meat so I always keep streaky bacon in the fridge just for this purpose...plus it adds some saltiness to the soup too.

Now of course this time saver can be made with all sorts of other vegetables and could be left in the oven once cooked for any amount of time until you are ready to eat it.

My left over user upper soup happened as quite a mistake...but a happy one.

I had made a lovely dish of sag aloo (that's an Indian dish made with potatoes, onions and spinach with spices) to go with a curry over the weekend and 5 days later I still had a large portion left in the fridge. Rather than relinquishing it to the food bin, I boiled up some carrots (yes they are a staple base of many of my soups) and blended them along with the potato dish.

The result was a lovely green curried soup which went brilliantly with a few sunflower seeds sprinkled on top...the Two Monkeys devoured it. Well OK, they both ate most of it but my Little Giant did end up with a good helping of it over his face and hands but nothing a quick wipe down couldn't solve. I was so surprised at how much I enjoyed it too that this will definitely feature again on our menu.

So with the weather supposedly on the turn this weekend for something a bit more wet and windy, why not find out a new soup recipe to try. I have already spotted a fabulous crab and noodle soup over at The Pie Patch today which I am looking forward to sampling.

R is for Rusks

Some of you will now be in a very happy place thinking about rusks. In fact, I suggest that before you read any further you make a hot milky beverage of your choice to enjoy with a rusk while you read.

The rest of my readership will fall into the category of uninitiated in the way of the rusk and are probably thinking "why is she writing about baby teething biscuits that do nothing but cause a mess and turn to musk" right now.

Well, prepared to be enlightened.

Rusks are the anglicised term for beskuit a traditional biscuit in South Africa that you have for breakfast, they are designed for dunking...nay... soaking in your morning tea or coffee.  You definitely cannot eat them dry or you are likely to break a tooth and that will really spoil your day. Of course you don't just have to keep them for breakfast either, they are great as a snack with a hot drink any time of the day,

So why am I eating rusks? Well, here comes a bit of background for those that don't know me so well.. my dear husband is from South Africa I have been enjoying rusks for a good 6 years now, and whilst you can buy the big brand Ouma Rusks over here in the UK they are massively marked up so they became a bit of a treat that we would always bring some back after a trip or visiting family would cram packs into their suitcases.

But then I realised that actually, maybe it was time it was only after our visit in December 2013 that I decided to step out, be brave, and make my own.  And you may not think it, but it is a big deal as the rusks that we buy when in South Africa aren't a mass produced product but something that a ladies bake up at home and sell at the local corner shops to supplement their income and they are faultless...and delicious...and when they hold such a central place in your families heart, trying to replicate them is quite a daunting task.


But what is a rusk in baking terms? Essentially they are is a bread based dough that is baked twice so in a way very similar to biscotti.  Some recipes call for yeast, some don't. It really is totally dependant on the type of rusk you are after. Once you make and prove the dough you separate it into balls, pack it into a tin and bake. Once baked you tear the pieces apart and put them back into the oven at a very low temperature to dry out (preferably overnight)

So I returned home with a few cut out recipes from magazines as well as looking up a few online recipes to see what they had to say and then every Sunday for about 4 weeks, I made rusks.

Now some batches were much more successful than others, the one I tried to make with yeast was alright but possibly in trying to be clever and cook it in my large square stone baker it didn;t quite work. I should have rather used several smaller loaf tins so the dough in the middle wasn't undercooked...if they were judged on Great British Bake Off they would definitely get the Paul Hollywood prod of disaprovement.  I also used 100% whole wheat flour in an attempt to make it healthier but that also didn't quite work. In subsequent batches I still used it but only as 30 or 40 % to plain white flour.

I then moved on to the more breakfast type rusks, the ones where one or two will set you up for the morning but a third would just be too much. With these I really could go to town on what when in; seeds, ground nuts (like almond and coconut which in turn reduced the wheat content), museli. They were also a simpler bake as there was no proving to do it was very much a case of mix the wet and dry ingredients together and bake. These proved to be much closer to the ones that we bought when in South Africa and are still my favorite ones to make, the recipe was from another blog called Under the Blue Gum Tree and I highly recommend following the link if you want to try it.

 Due to our moving house in March I started packing up the kitchen in late February so my weekly stashes of rusks came to an end.  I also have to admit to getting a little frustrated with my Little Giant as he had just started walking and had a tendency to like turning the oven temperature knob....so two batches instead of "drying" actually got baked to a crisp and burnt raisins are really not nice.  Thankfully the oven in our new kitchen is higher and I also have a baby gate to keep the Two Monkeys out while I am cooking so I really have no excuses not to start making them again.

So put away your Rich Teas (or Marie Biscuits), hide the Hobnobs and ditch the Digestives, when it comes to dunking biscuits in your tea or coffee...you need rusks in your life.  I know that writing today's post has made me quite hungry for some so I am making sure the ingredients have gone down on my shopping list for this weekend!

Q is for ...

to be honest I am not entirely sure. Lets be honest there was always going to be a letter or two for which I couldn't come up with a decent title!

So what do I use in my kitchen that begins with a 'Q'?

Well for a start there a 'quince'. A pear like fruit found in central and southern Europe and featured in the poem 'The Owl and the Pussycat'. I know of quince jam but can't  say I have ever tried it...so that is the end of that. Q is not for quince in my kitchen

Q is also not for Qinoa in my kitchen. I have seen it on the shelves, I have seen it named in recipes but I have yet to be brave enough to try it...even if it is a "complete protein" containing very good amino acids...its just not for me. Yet. 

I guess for me the most obviously choice in my kitchen is that Q is for Quick.

Cooking that is quick (and easy!) makes a whole lot of difference in any mummy's kitchen. And I am not talking about Jamie Oliver's meals in 30 minutes because, lets be honest, realistically they take 90 minutes. I am talking about those meals where recipes don't apply and that you can just throw on a plate in minutes (preferably less than five) in order to feed the hungry and occasionally angry hoards.

There are times (say 4.45pm most days) when my Little Giant is moaning because he is hungry and his energy levels are low and The Bug isn't helping things by either winding him up or deciding now is the best time to try out playing the keyboard at full volume. It's at these times when the only way I am guaranteed any silence is to tell them that dinner is ready and its like flicking a switch and as soon as the food is in their mouths they are quiet, happy and very content children.

On some days it's super easy as I may actually be prepared and already have something lovely in the oven or something to pull out the fridge and reheat from the day before. But there are days when waiting for the oven to heat so they can have fish fingers and smiley faces or cooking some sausages to go with a can of beans just won't cut it. It's these days when fresh tortellini (we call it surprise pasta)with a bit of pesto or cream cheese stirred in is your friend...that or eggy bread (which means I can have a nibble too) or an 'its and bits' tea. 

This last one is great for using up the last little bits of things, I basically put out a tasting plate of things for them to nibble on like olives, beetroot, gherkins, cheese cubes, chorizo or ham, crackers or bread soldiers, a spoonful of coleslaw or other raw fruit and veg. If you want to be really fancy you can make it into pictures. Now some of you may be thinking that they are very strange or strong flavours to be giving to children but they eat them because they have first seen us eat it and have tried it off of our plates. It really is one of the quickest meals they have and also keeps their diet varied and allows me to introduce new things in very small quantities.

P is for Pampered Chef

Pampered Chef...what is it? 

Let me be very clear, it isn't me standing in the kitchen with a face mask on whilst I cook.

It is a lovely range of kitchen ware and gadgetry that can make cooking and baking and doing what you do in the kitchen much easier. If not a lot more fun.

I first discovered the pampered chef products about 4 years ago whilst still pregnant with The Bug. My sister had become a Pampered Chef consultant and I dutifully hosted a party at our wimbledon flat, describing it to my friends as like an Anne Summers party but with stuff for the kitchen and a bit cooking to see how things work.  This was the first of 4 parties that I would end up hosting and I enjoyed every one of them.  In fact, by the last party my sister didn't even have to bring any of her demo kit as I had about a third of the catalogue in my kitchen cupboards already. 

Admittedly I didn't have to buy EVERYTHING that I had, some I got free as a bonus for the amount spent at my party and some bought with the points I earned from hosting the party or bought with the host discount.

Out of the various bits and pieces I have, I do havea few favourites and have listed them (complete with links to The Pampered Chef website) so you can pop over and have a nosey.

• My stoneware, in particular the pizza stone and medium bar pan get used pretty much every day. And for all sorts, I can cook meat on there then do some pizza or chips and then fish and there is absolutely no residual smell. They are amazing and naturally non stick so you don't have to cook with much oil, for example, the muffin pan I also turns out the most perfect and tall yorkshire puddings with only a brush of oil under the batter. I have five stoneware pieces, the three I have already mentioned along with the square baker and the large rectangular baker. In the states they also do a stone bunt tin which looks fantastic but they don't have that over here yet.
• The food chopper. I don't have time to finely dice ingredients for some recipies, and others i just want to cram as much veg in without The Two Monkeys paying much heed. The chopper is a great way of chopping up veg quickly and into really fine pieces...and its child safe too. The bug loves having a go with it.
• The knives. My dear husband got a large Santoku knife for Christmas about 3 years ago and he loves it. I don't use it as it is rather large for me but I do have the utility knife which I wield every day. It is so comfortable and comes with a life time guarantee but the quality is so good that I doubt we ever will have to use it.
• The large scoop. When it comes to baking cupcakes or muffins or individual cakes, there is nothing like the scoop to ensure that the batter makes it into the case without making a mess AND the final cakes are identically sized
• Prep pots. I have a set of 6 little glass prep pots that all come with plastic lids. They can be frozen, they can be heated (without the lids) and are just the bees knees for storing left overs for The Two Monkeys. 
• The brownie pan. Now I don't know about you, but to me when you make (and eat) brownies or banana bread the corners are the best bit. This little piece of magical bake ware means that you can  have 4 corners all to yourself with every piece you make. Also, the cooking time for your brownie is shorter as its in smaller portions...so you get to eat it faster. Win/Win situation all round really.

There are lots more products that I could rave about (the garlic crusher is just brilliant) but I thought I would stick to the ones that have proven them selves most useful and do get used everyday.

I have to admit there are a few items and gizmos that have barely been touched but mostly because I got them as a gift or because I bought them in order to use up the points...the egg slicer springs to mind, but I am thinking of reviving it for the boys to use with playdough. 

However, the biggest white elephant has to have been the trifle bowl. It was a free gift for achieving so many sales at one of the parties I had  but it sat unopened and unused for 2 years after I got it...in fact I first used it one weekend not so long ago after our move. It also happened to be the first trifle I had ever made but that is mostly because it has never been my favourite dessert. However, this particular weekend was fathers day and I had promised my dear husband that I would make him a trifle (with extra love mixed in) and not only did it look great in the stunning bowl that FINALLY got used but it tasted wonderful too.  Now since that weekend it has only been used a further two times BUT it is getting out of its box more frequently and I have no doubt it will put in a regular appearance during the Christmas season when we will have a full house of family visiting from South Africa.

I also have to add that along with such fabulous products The Pampered Chef team also produce some fantastic recipes to go with them.  One of our favourites  is the Mexican Chicken 'Lasagne' that we make in our square baker (more stoneware), it's a  total genius recipe that is always great to do when we have guests but can also be made mild enough for the little ones to eat too.

And that about wraps it up for this post.

The only thing I have left to say is that I was not paid for this post or given any products for it and I am not a sales consultant for Pampered Chef. This post is totally my own opinion of the products and I totally agree that what may work for me might not work for someone else.  If you want to find out more about The Pampered Chef you can find them on twitter and facebook or if you want to have your very own cooking show go and take a peek at this page to find your local consultant. 

O is for Ooops

I failed! I didn't make my self assigned Friday deadline last week...oops in a major way! 

I do have a very good excuse though, The Two Monkeys and I were away for a few days visiting my sisters and her family to celebrate my nieces 4th birthday and so I wasn't actually at home to write and too busy to put my thoughts onto the screen of my phone.  I will be doing some writing on birthday cakes in the future and I did deconstruction of the pink castle cake to write up on here for you all.

However, I am here now and thought I would share with you a few of  my kitchen "ooops" moments...because lets be honest, unless you are Mary Poppins there will be times when things just go wrong.

My most recent ooops can actually only be described as a complete disaster and happened just yesterday. The boys and I were off out to a friends for a play date and I thought I would be super organised and take over some fresh baked danish pastries. I am going to be totally honest and say they weren't my own pastry, rather the lovely bake-it-fresh range from Jus-Rol

They look lovely don't they.  

Really delicious.

Just perfect with a cup of something and a natter with my friend whilst our children played on the trampoline or ran laps of the garden.

But I got distracted.

First up was the nappy change that needed doing, but having sorted that and taken a quick peek in the oven and I thought I still had plenty of time.

Then the laundry needed hanging out on the line and as the sun was out for the first time in days I wasn't going to waste the opportunity. Half way through the basket of wet clothes I come across a shirt, which meant a quick dash inside and upstairs to grab a hanger or two out of the wardrobe. Back out to the garden (passing the oven on the way but not checking this time...error!) I finish pegging the last t-shirt and odd sock up on the line and head back towards the house, but not before I pick up all the various plastic toys of the lawn and put them in a pile for later. I feel a real sense of achievement, I am winning, in that moment I am a domestic goddess.

As I get to the back door I smell it...the unmistakable smell of burning food.

I run to the oven and pull down the door to be greeted with the most unfortunate and charred sight and with various muttered expletives I pull the stone tray out of the oven for closer inspection. Could they be saved? Was it just the corners?

No.

No such luck for me. 

What should have been delicious morsels of yummy goodness were now well burnt offerings fit only for the food waste bin. They looked bad, smelt bad and tasted even worse.

Ooops.

Needless to stay I stopped by a mini supermarket on my way to our playdate and grabbed some much better looking and very scrummy maple and pecan danish plaits.

N is for Nutella

Nutella.

Other chocolate spreads are available.

Mmm.

Like Homer in The Simpsons; Mmmmmm.

 

It is the forbidden jar of spreadable yumminess that, when I was a child, was never allowed by my Mother to go in the shopping trolley. And to be honest, now I have children it rarely makes it into the shopping basket as I see it more as a luxury rather than a must have and (if we are being totally honest) The Two Monkeys barely get a look in as they don't have toast for breakfast...Mummy does!

Now I thought about writing about cooking without certain items...like No Wheat or No Gluten or No Fat (not sure I agree with that concept any way) but these topics didn't really strike a chord with me. And whilst I have made the odd gluten free bake, it was always at the request of someone else and not something that I would go for myself. 

In fact for a while this letter of the alphabet had me stumped, I had to turn to my friend (and super duper blogger) Lucy over at The Pie Patch to sound off ideas. In doing so I was reminded of Nutella and to be fair that took less than 5 minutes.  I had (once upon a not so very long ago) baked some delicious cupcakes using this must delicious of ingredients, and as this blog seems to be full of the more chocolatey side of cooking it seemed like a fitting thing to write about. 

But first a confession about why I really don't buy Nutella.

It isn't because of the sugar content or that it is a luxury that I can really do without. It is because I cannot resist it, especially around about 3pm in the afternoon when there is still two hours before my dear husband comes home and I need a little sugar hit to go with my cup of tea. I grab a tea spoon out of the cutlery drawer, open the cupboard where the jar of chocolatey goodness resides, remove the lid and dig out a heaped spoonful before licking the spoon clean.

And its not just my own cupboard either. I will do this when I go to my parents house too...although I just want to say I find the fact they now have chocolate spread hugely unfair. How is it ok for grandchildren to eat but not your own? Anyway, before any of you go eeeewwww, i am never having chocolate spread when I visit your house again. I never go for a second dip with the same spoon! On the rare occasion that one spoon isn't enough, I do actually get a clean spoon and take the jar back out of the cupboard and indulge for a second time.

So there you have it, the truth is out, I am a secret Nutella spread stealer. To my parents I can only apologise, maybe you need to hide the jar when I am around.  To my sister I can say don't worry I have never done this at your house and to my sons...well you're both still too young to understand but I will try and stop so we can have a jar that actually lasts longer.

So back to the cupcakes I mentioned earlier, this was one of the many bakes that I had the where with all to photograph as I went. And looking at the date on the image (March 2012) it can only have been a session of what I like to call naptime baking.  Please excuse the photos aren't as clear as I would like but they were taken on my old HTC sensation and are not a dot on what my Samsung Galaxy now takes.

This recipe uses a very basic chocolate sponge which I haven't copied out here because that is against the rules.

As with all cupcakes I use an scoop to make sure that a) all my cupcakes are the same size which means I wont have to alter the bake time for bigger/smaller ones, and b) that no mess is made on the side of the cases which prevents an even rise.

I always aim to make the amount that the recipe says, if you still have a bit of cake batter left at the end, either use a teaspoon to top up each case or discard it. Don't be tempted to make one extra large cupcake!

 Leave to cool in your tin for about 5 minutes before removing, this will allow any batter that has gone over your case and onto the tin to slightly shrink back and not get stuck. I use a stone muffin pan by Pampered Chef (more about them when I get to P) and it really does produce great results.

 Now here comes the fun bit. Once your cupcakes are completely cooled, cut out a hole in the middle much as you would for fairy cakes, if not a bit smaller. Fill with a chocolate hazelnut spread. Then over the top of the cake and spread filling, add a  chocolate butter cream icing and whole hazelnuts (your own preference as to if they are blanched or not).

As to what to do with the cake bits you cut out...completely your call. I would suggest eating them before someone else does! Or make mini trifles in ramekins for pudding later

So there you are, a tray of  Hazelnut and Chocolate Cupcakes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, my most favourite cupcake book and it also has the best banana bread recipe too.

A little bit about the Hummingbird Bakery itself; I first discovered their perfectly iced morsels whilst working in South Kensington and fell in love with their red velvets and black bottoms. I even wrote about over here way back in 2009 at my other blog.. In fact, it was the Mary Poppins of cake shops; practically perfect in every way...the only downside was that the venue in question could get quite crowded if you were eating in. When I went on maternity leave and became a stay-at-home-mum it was one of the things I really missed, and now we have moved out of London I miss it even more.

M is for Macaroni Cheese

Now before the giant marrow invaded my kitchen and my blog, I had fully intended on writing about the wonderful comfort food that is macaroni cheese.

Now I am not talking about the stuff out of a can...that I find a bit sickly.

Nor am I talking about the rather orange (but still quite yummy) Kraft Dinner, although if you have never ventured across the Atlantic pond you are unlikely to have ever sampled this delicacy.

I am talking about the home-made kind.

The kind that as a grown-up, it transports me back to my childhood and gives me that warm fuzzy feeling. It comes second only to sausages, smiley face potatoes and spaghetti hoops in evoking such memories

The kind where the sauce is made with a mix of whatever cheeses are lurking in your fridge...the more the better in my opinion.

And The Two Monkeys love it, and whilst it may not be the best meal in terms of nutritional value it tastes good and in moderation...why not? Getting to cook it is always great as it means I get to taste it (obviously) which in turn helps me not scoff the whole lot before anyone gets a look in.  In fact my oldest friend loves this dish and is always delighted if there is any left in the pot once the boys have eaten.

Now I realise that everyone has their own recipe, but for me put the pasta (it doesn't HAVE to be macaroni either) into boiling water and whilst it cooks make up a basic white sauce of butter, flour and milk. I won't give you the weights as I don't measure it out...it's more a chuck it in and see method. Add to that the cheese or cheeses of your choice, a bit of salt, pepper and a pinch of ground nutmeg and....voilà, you have the perfect dinner for a rainy day. 

Well, at least I think so.

M is for Marrow

And this isn't just any old marrow, this is a whopper of vegetable that was gifted to me by my Mother who got it from who knows where. Unfortunately "Olivia and the Giant Marrow" doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "James and the Giant Peach" but there is still a story to tell none-the-less

My problem was, I hadn't a clue what to do with it. Now I don't mean in terms of I didn't know how to cook a marrow as I have vague memories of having baked marrow stuffed with spicy rice as a child and could probably replicate that to one degree or another. But at the same time the same memories also tell me that stuffed marrow gave me really bad gas and that is not at all attractive so that option was quickly crossed off the list.

So whilst I could have cooked it, it was more the sheer size and quantity of said vegetable that put me at a complete loss as to what to do, in fact, I found it quite intimidating having this cucurbita (fancy new word I found) sitting on my worktop glaring at me to use it each time I went in the kitchen.

So I reached out to friends on twitter for some help and the responses ranged from turning it into rum -not helpful, a cake - intriguing but not convincing, or jam - bingo!

So jam it was and after a quick search via Google I came across this simple recipe on the River Cottage website which matched up to the quantities of marrow I had. I wish I could say that I leaped into action there an then, after scribbling a quick shopping list (lemons, preserving sugar and root ginger) but it took another few days before I made it to the supermarket with The Two Monkeys in tow feeling über productive and positive because after a week of having this behemoth of a vegetable glaring at me I was finally going to use it.

On returning home, I got the boys settled The Two Monkeys down to eat their lunch (which I like to think gives me about 15 minutes to do something but in reality its about 5) and returned to the kitchen. Having donned my apron, grabbed my biggest pan and cleared some space I laid out my ingredients to do a "before" shot.

Looks good doesn't it. Very country kitchen. But that was when production came to a screaming halt...and why? Because I had no jam jars. None. Zilch. Because in my infinite wisdom I had the previous evening made tangy plum jam with some of the first fruit off the tree in our garden and used up all the empty jars I had. Talk about school girl error!

So I put my ingredients in the pan which sat on the stove not getting cooked Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I was reluctant to buy brand new jars so had scoured some of the charity shops on Monday but to no avail. Wednesday arrived and so did my Mother along with a hoard of empty jars, this is it, I thought...but no, I ran out of time during the day and I was not going to sacrifice watching Great British Bake Off for an overgrown courgette.

It was Thursday (yesterday) that I finally got to cut into the giant légume. I cut it into slices, scooped out the insides and (leaving the skin on) cooked with a little water but mostly letting it steam in its own juices in the pan.

 Now my thinking behind leaving the skin on was that it would be easier to separate the flesh from the harder skin and on that count at least I was right. The recipe that I referred to above also suggested squeezing the excess water from the marrow which I dutifully did as I removed the skin.

 This however, is where it started to go wrong.

Once I had plonked what remained of the marrow back into the pan it looked rather pitiful, I mean I had expected some reduction but not that much. I added the sugar, lemon zest and juice and the ginger as directed but chose to use fresh ginger over ground or crystallised ginger. I chopped and bruised it to release the oils and then added it to cook with everything else.

But it just didn't look right. Not only did the it just become really pulpy without the natural fluid from the marrow that I had squeezed out, there seemed to be nothing for the sugar to bind with in. It looked lumpy and not at all appetising for spreading on toast or having on a cracker with a really stinky cheese. So either I was meant to end up with more marrow in my pan than the recipe suggested or, and this is my thought, I should have ignored the squeezing instruction.

But what to do now? I am not a chemist and felt, not for the first time with this whole marrow debacle, at a loss.

I did what any normal, sane individual would do.

I added yellow plums.

Now you may be thinking "What?" but my logic went as follows; its similar in colour and these also had a fairly dryish flesh. I had lots of them. As some were still a little under ripe they may add a nice tang to pot which to be quite frank tasted like a zesty ginger stew, the marrow adding bulk but little flavour. And did I mention that I had lots of them?

Yup... please excuse me while I go off topic but I have to tell you about the plums. One of the joys of having a garden is that we now have a plum tree and whilst they are not the sweetest or most flavoursome, I am all about the free fruit and also my Little Giant loves them and will do everything he can to get at the windfalls. So far I had made a crumble, a first pick tangy jam, plum tarts, as well as de-stoning and freezing approximately 4kg and have given various neighbours 500g punnets of them. And there are still more to be picked.

So, back to the jam, why not add them? It couldn't hurt to try right?

Right! After 5 minutes boiling with the plums in the mix I could already see the difference in volume and the consistency looked a lot better too. I continued to cook it at a simmer for another 20 minutes stirring occasionally so the sugar wouldn't catch, but it still did a bit but that's OK because it added a nice bit of colour. I was so pleased to have rescued the jam as I hate waste and I was loath to throw it away.

But now all is said and done I have learnt my lesson, if I am ever offered a marrow in the future I will politely decline and change the subject :)

L is for Leftovers

Leftovers.

Lets not just consign it to bubble and squeak...there are so many things that you can do with your leftovers.

Now I am not talking about eating the same chilli for 3 nights in a row, common sense would dictate that if you make a large chilli freeze at least half in 2 person portion containers for later in the month for an evening when you don't want to cook.  What I am talking about is all those bits and pieces from meals where you made too much that all too often get scraped out of the pan and straight into the bin without a second thought. But what if you were to save the extra pasta or rice or cut of meat for another day or another meal?

Since becoming a mummy I have learnt that even the little bits of what I or my dear husband don't eat are worth keeping - they will often be a perfect sized lunch (or at least part it) for The Two Monkeys the next day and its a time saver too. I can honestly say that when it gets to 5 to midday and the Little Giant has just woken up from his nap and is clamouring for food and I got busy doing other things with The Bug while he was sleeping...it makes me feel like I am winning at being a Mummy if I can just grab and reheat some lasagne or blend all the veggies and potatoes from last nights dinner into an instant soup.

Food waste and the amount of food waste households and supermarkets produce has been big news so far this year, along with various pieces on sell by and use by dates and funny shaped fruit and veg being discarded. But why has it taken so long for mainstream media to catch onto something that most family households already know and have probably known for decades...that often something like meat from a roast chicken on a Sunday will easily go into lunch boxes on Monday and even a stir fry on Tuesday. 

What has made our own food waste more visible is having to separate it out into a separate green caddy bin - we didn't have to do this when we were in Wimbledon, we just recycled our glass and plastics. We have the smaller caddy in the kitchen along with a biodegradable liner that once full gets put in a slightly larger one outside which is then emptied weekly. I think on average I fill the kitchen caddy twice a week  unless we have had a lot of friends over at the weekend in which case there may be more.  It hasn't been too difficult or overly smelly but I do make a point of washing both bins out each week to get rid of any nasty bacteria that may have decided to grow. I have also found since moving here with putting food waste in one bin and recycling in another I find that it takes a lot longer for our general waste bin to get full and is a real visual indicator of exactly how much we throw away in our culture.

So what is the point of this? Well, this year I am aiming to reduce, reuse and recycle more in our house and the kitchen is one of the main places in our house that I can do this.  Quite often with leftovers I just turn them into a stir fry or sandwiches but occasionally I will get quite creative. Lets be honest, if I have made a custard from scratch with egg yolks, the best thing to do with the whites is make meringues the next day and that is always a popular pudding in our house!

If you don't tend to keep food, why not try...especially with things loke stews and curries, as we all know they taste better the next day.  And if you are a food saver specialist do you have favourite recipes for your leftovers? Why not leave me a comment with your ideas as I love to swap kitchen tips!

K is for Kitchen

I love being in the kitchen, it is a place that I associate with fun, friends and (of course) food.

I was incredibly lucky that the kitchen we had in our flat in Wimbledon was not only large but full of light. I had a window to look out of whilst doing the washing up and a second aspect towards the common which not only provided us with a great through draft if I had burnt something but the boys and I could keep a look out for when Daddy would come sweeping round the corner on his bicycle after a day a work. In additon to the two windowns it was, as far as London flats go, palatial. There was a table that seated four comfortably or seven at a push, a slim line dishwasher (which I miss terribly), and a fan oven that was just great at being the right temperature and producing amazing cakes.

When  we first looked at the house we moved to in March one of my concerns wad that the kitchen was TINY. The rest of the house was totally huge in comparison and was going to suit us perfectly so I thought that it was something that I would just have to put to the back of my mind and deal with.

Or so I thought.

Come moving day and the subsequent week spent unpacking boxes my new kitchen just absorbed everything into seemingly endless cupboards. In fact, I would go as far as to say I have more storage space now than I had previously. So what had happened?

I had been deceived by the smaller floorspace and hadn't taken into account that the cupboards went back into the corners. The room is also darker due to the single window which also visually shrinks the space, but the view is lovely and I have been able to watch my roses grow and the yellow plum tree bare fruit.  In fact, despite the lack of dishwasher (something that I am still coming to terms with) there were many other good points to this kitchen, for example, above the oven is a nifty concealed space in which the microwave can hide. The itself oven was higher up which had two really good pluses to it, it was now out of reach of the Two Monkeys (the combined name for our boys) as well as having a very deep drawer underneath to stash all my various baking tins and stoneware. 

And yes, my kitchen may not have the little ikea pine table in it any longer, but instead we have a whopper of a walnut table in the dining/family room which is right next to the kitchen and actually means it gets used as a table for arts and crafts rather than the dumping ground it ended up in the flat.

So all in all, it all came right in the end. The kitchen hasn't been a disappointment at all, if anything it has become more of my own "space" and I even have a bit more freedom in this kitchen as there are no child locks on the doors - instead we put a gate across the doorway which allows us to be in the kitchen and also have the back door open without either of the Two Monkeys escaping into the garden unsupervised or invading the cupboards.

What's more my dear husband has been doing some excellent DIY and put up a floating shelf for all my cookbooks as well as making  me the most beautiful handmade spice rack too.

And who knows...with a bit of shuffling of the cupboards I may even get a dishwasher!

J is for Joy

Everyone needs joy, that little something in our day that fills us up with a warm fuzzy feeling that reaches all the way to your toes.

Joy can be found in the smiles of your children, watching a loved one win a race, for some people it may be an afternoon in the garden and whilst all those things are perfectly wonderful and true...there is nothing that brings me so much joy as to see my dear husbands face when he realises I have made something sweet to eat, particularly if that something is chocolate based.  What is even better is that the Two Monkeys also want in on some of the cooking action and The Bug loves to put on his apron and become my assistant chef. His words "I have a taste...purrrleeease" melt my heart and I cannot help but indulge him.

Chocolate & Hazelnut Fudge

Now I know that I already covered off how to make fudge in this post, my chocolate fudge is from a slightly different recipe (found here), with dark chocolate and nuts stirred in as the mixure cooled. Today I wanted to share with you a recipe that has given me little bits of joy since I was a child which should be perfect for this overcast July afternoon.

The recipe is called Biscuit Crunch and is taken from the Winnie the Pooh Cookbook as originally printed in 1979.  It is essentially a type of fridge cake which is great for making with little people as there is plenty of opportunity for spoon licking and was always affectionately known in our house as "Pooh Crunch"

Ingredients:

• 1/2lb rich tea biscuits
• 4 oz unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 4 oz chocolate - plain or milk or a mixture of both (depending on taste)

Instructions

• Grease a 20cm (8') dish or tin, it can be round or square
• Measure butter or margarine, cocoa powder, sugar, syrup into large saucepan. Place on low heat and using wooden spoon stir until ingredients have melted. Take pan off heat.
• Crush biscuits up coarsely in a bowl (this bit is great to do as a little person) and pour over melted ingredients. Use a fork to blend ingredients and coat biscuits. Spoon mixture into cake tin, spread level and press mixture firmly into tin
• Break chocolate into bowl and melt over saucepan of warm water . Pour melted chocolate over biscuit base and spread evenly. Place in fridge until set

Extras : Should you wish to make your dish a little bit more exciting you can add in dried fruit such as cranberries, or nuts, or chocolate chunks into the mix once you have added the melted ingredients.

I is for...

...inert, idle, immobile, inactive.

All these words could be used to describe the state of this blog. And yes, if this post seems familiar it is because I wrote something incredibly like this in October last year but it got deleted and no other posts followed on. Life got in the way - which is no bad thing! Being a stay-at-home-mum has, and continues to be, a lot of fun...even if it does mean I am constantly on the go.

When I started this blog I had fully intended to write about my experience of weaning The Bug, and our journey discovering food together. I had envisioned that I would write the alphabet series over 26 weeks and be done with it before moving onto another title sequence. Only problem them is that The Bug is just about to turn three and eats pretty much anything and everything we put in front of him.

Not only that but in the intervening years The Bug's little brother the Little Giant arrived (as you may have guessed from previous mentions of The Two Monkeys) and is also completely weaned and has a more voracious appetite than his brother. So I can't talk about his weaning journey either. Talk about blogger fail.

What's worse is that I have plenty of material to hand. I have meticulously photographed my baking and epic cooking achievements but they just sit idle on my laptop gathering digital dust.

So where does this leave me now? Playing catch up for the most part...but that is OK as my family (and cooking for them) come before my writing, or my crafting, or anything else really. Part of me wishes my writing could come before housework but invariably that also wins out too. But I am going to try and post every Friday from this point on for the remainder of 2014...I even have it scheduled in my diary.  In the meantime, if you want to read a real foodie blog, pop over and visit my friend Lucy at The Pie Patch as she is fairly awesome and is also into all sorts of crafty things that I like too.

'H' is for Hot Pie

OK, so I have kinda skewed the title of this post to make it fit the topic that I want but who can blame me? After all it is British Pie Week and therefore it is most appropriate to write about the British passion for pastry encased yumminess.

I mean, who ever came up with the idea for pies deserves an award for services to humanity and doing the world a huge favour. I mean there are chunky meat pies, then potato topped pies, little tarts and then fruity pies, cobblers and hot crust pies.

It makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

The alternative for 'H' is homemade, which is also (in part) what this post is about. I can honestly say that making a pie from scratch beats a store bought one of the same flavour (and I can say this as I bought one at the weekend) because you stir in that extra ingredient...love. (Smell the cheese of that last sentence there) But seriously, it does taste a whole lot better and you know exactly what goes into it. And most people will shrug off looking at the label but when it comes to feeding The Two Monkeys, it really does matter to me how much salt is in something and what additives it may have.

Having been inspired by the Hairy Bikers cookbook I was given for Christmas 2012 (as mentioned in an earlier post), I made my dear husband pick out a recipe for me to have a bash at for dinner one night.  My only previous pie attempts have been a fruit filled pies or a very lovely and sweet "Pumpkin Pie" from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, this would be my first foray into the world of savoury pies and I was a little nervous.

However, I want to make it perfectly clear that making pies really does take baking to a whole new level. It's more than just a mixture in a cupcake case, it is a process that leads to combining filling and pastry and doing your best to avoid a "soggy bottom"

So today I set about creating the "Creamy Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie" that my dear husband had selected, if you're interested in trying it you can find it here. The prep for the filling took me just under an hour, which was good as I could fit it in whilst my Little Giant had an afternoon nap and The Bug played in the room next door.  From there on in it was just a case of making the pie prior to cooking.

Interestingly enough, the shortcrust pastry for this recipe differs from others that I have previously made in that it uses an egg rather than just water.  If anything it created a smoother dough that I could use instantly rather than needing to let it rest.  I also made a point of using cold and cubed butter to make the pastry which I haven't  done in the past and it worked much better.

So we sat down to a very lovely hot pie for dinner tonight and enjoyed every last bite.  There was even some pastry left over for me to make some mini chocolate tortes for pudding.

G is for Gravy

Yes, you heard me, gravy.  There are certain dishes out there that are just not complete until you add this, the most wonderful and versatile of all sauces.

Sausage and mash. Pie and mash.  Actually, lets make that anything with mash.

A roast dinner (of any kind). Toad in the hole.

The americans even have a thick sausage gravy they eat at breakfast!

The great thing about gravy is that it can be made to match whatever you are eating and there is no firm rule about what goes in it. You can thicken it...or not. You can add onions...or not. Each batch is unique and in our family my dear husband is the king of gravy makers (and roast dinners). You can drench your dinner in it or (in the case of a certain friend) drink it straight from the jug.

You can try and dress it up and call it a jus but really it all boils down to the same thing (quite literally in fact.)

But for me, the most bizarre thing about gravy is that while I am now more than happy to wax lyrical about its many and marvellous uses... I used to despise it as a child. You make think that despise is rather a strong word but I couldn't stand to have any gravy pass my lips, any meal with said condiment would be rejected. Or very grudging picked at because I was generally a good child who did as they were told.

I am sure my mother must have despaired.

It sounds odd but I decided at about the age of 5 or 6 that I didn't like "wet food" and avoided it at all costs.  I have to add that I also liked to keep all the different foods separate on my plate but that is probably another story and one that I am sure some psychologist would have something to say about.  But back to the story in hand, I would refuse gravy on any and every meal, my especial fear was that it would turn my potatoes to mush.  This strong aversion of "wet food" extended to include brothy stews, custard and pouring cream....all things I now eat in abundance.

So lets give it up for gravy...I know I will be having a double helping next time it is on the menu.

'F' is for Fudge

And fudged fudge at that...well, my first attempt didn't exactly go to plan and set with the consistency of sorbet.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining and it tasted great and worked even better heated up poured over bananas for pudding. Or, in my dear husband's case, vanilla ice-cream and bananas.

By now some of you may be spotting common theme appearing in my blog...well that is all down to the fact that my dear husband has a taste for all things sweet and chocolatey and who I am to deny this? Instead, I get to be the wonderful wife that can cook and create things to indulge his sweet tooth and mine...because lets be honest here I like sweet stuff too.

So anyway, about two weeks ago I set about the task of making some fudge as a valentines gift for my dear husband. I found a great recipe for vanilla fudge with evaporated milk that was based on timings rather than temperature, which was a good thing as I don't have a sugar thermometer. 

Now I know that traditionally many people would have opted for the condensed milk over the evaporated milk but this wasn't a planned concoction rather I was being sponatneous and using what I had in my cupboard.  Should I ever revisit making fudge I will try it with condensed milk.

At this point a few of you are thinking, hang on, if it was for a valentines gift how can it have been spontaneous? My answer is simply this; I am a stay-at-home-mum on a budget and I didn't have time to knit him anything.

My first attempt was made with granulated sugar which, although part of the recipe, is where I think I went wrong. When I repeated the recipe later on in the week I changed this for caster sugar and got (as you can see) fantabulous results.  I know it tasted good as this box lasted less time than the aforementioned fudged fudge.

*Edit* this fudge does have a more toffee like consistency rather than one that melts in your mouth

'E' is for eggs

Eggs are just wonderful things. So yummy. Often quick to cook. And lets not forget...so good for you!

Robust enough in their own flavour that you can eat them alone in so many ways - it's amazing.  Just stop and think about it...boiled, fried, poached, scrambled. Then there are numerous dishes in which they can be used, I certainly get through boxes of them when baking...especially birthday cakes but that is another post entirely.

Now when it comes to The Two Monkeys (who are currently 2 and a half-ish years and nearly 1 years) then eggs do actually prove a bit problematic. They will devour eggy bread in minutes but give them a fried or boiled egg and its picked over or pushed aside or ignored. Their most favourite form of egg is an omelette or frittata which I fill with shredded veggies and cheese...just typing this is making me hungry!

And sizes, eggs come in all sorts of sizes. Now I have held (and stood on) an ostrich egg and it is really huge, an omelette made from one of those would be the equivalent of 22 chicken eggs.  On the other hand quails eggs are tiny, and while they are not my favourite to eat they are very pretty to look at. In fact we have a carved ostrich egg that we put a light inside of and use as our Christmas tree topper, and lets be honest painted eggs at Easter hanging on twisted hazel can be so beautiful... so yet another use for them, home decor!

I mostly buy chicken eggs but I know duck eggs are particularly good for baking with and I have made a point of using them to make things when cooking for a friend who cannot eat chicken eggs.

I cannot imagine a culinary world without the humble egg and so I would like to raise my glass to the most versatile of all cooking ingredients.

An ode to eggs

Not only are you curves beautiful
       as you lie there in your carton.
The hue of your shell is alluring;
       duck blue, white, brown but not tartan.

You are the epitome of yumminess
         and can be used in all sorts of ways.
When removed from the fridge for lunch,
         my stomach will never be dismayed.

'D' is for "Doh!"

In the immortal words of Homer, who loves doughnuts more than any other (and my dear husband's favorite character)... 'D' is for "doh" as this post was orginally published, quite mistakely, in the wrong order but this has now been corrected.

But 'D' was meant to be about doughnuts...the glazed ring of deliciousness or a jam filled ball of delight.  Not that I have ever had a go at making these myself, I just like to eat them  :)

Now there are the super sticky ones covered in icing and sprinkles that The Two monkeys love to buy from the baker at the Monday Market we have discovered in our new town. Or there are the melt in your mouth smoothly glazed Krispy Kreme ones that are out of this world and are finished far too soon and if you have more than about 3 you'll be sick. And then there are the super fresh ones you find by the seaside.  I have vivid memories as a teenager of going to Brighton Pier and the smell of the hot dough would make your mouth water and it was futile to do anything but buy one...or two...or a bag.  For sharing of course!